Science Sources: Detection and Attribution

Climate Signals tracks detection and attribution studies in real time. Below is an updating database of studies that find the fingerprint of human-caused climate change on observed trends and events. The database is limited to studies of local significance in the United States and studies of global significance. For a broader database of peer-reviewed studies and organizational reports on climate change trends, please see all Science Sources.

Search or browse our collection of detection and attribution studies below, or learn more about detection and attribution studies.

Title Source Date Author(s)
Causes of twentieth-century temperature change near the Earth's surface Nature Simon F. B. Tett, Peter A. Stott, Myles R. Allen, William J. Ingram, John F. B. Mitchell
Change in the Odds of Warm Years and Seasons Due to Anthropogenic Influence on the Climate AMS Journal of Climate Nikolaos Christidis and Peter A. Stott
Changes in the geopotential height at 500 hPa under the influence of external climatic forcings Geophysical Research Letters Nikolaos Christidis, Peter A. Stott
Changing intensity of hydroclimatic extreme events revealed by GRACE and GRACE-FO Nature Water
Climate change and California drought in the 21st century Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Michael E. Mann, Peter H. Gleick
Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood Science Advances Xingying Huang and Daniel L. Swain
Climate change made UK heatwave at least 10 times more likely World Weather Attribution M. Zachariah, R. Vautard, D. Schumacher, M. Vahlberg , D. Heinrich, E. Raju, L. Thalheimer, J. Arrighi, R. Singh, S. Li, J. Sun, G. Vecchi, et al
Climate change now detectable from any single day of weather at global scale Nature Climate Change Sebastian Sippel, Nicolai Meinshausen, Erich M. Fischer, Enikő Székely, Reto Knutti
Climate of the weakly-forced yet high-impact convective storms throughout the Ohio River Valley and Mid-Atlantic United States Climate Dynamics Binod Pokharel, S.-Y. Simon Wang, Jonathan Meyer, Robert Gillies, Yen-Heng Lin
Colorado River flow dwindles as warming-driven loss of reflective snow energizes evaporation Science P. C. D. Milly, K. A. Dunne
Compounding effects of warm sea surface temperature and reduced sea ice on the extreme circulation over the extratropical North Pacific and North America during the 2013–2014 boreal winter Geophysical Research Letters Ming‐Ying Lee, Chi‐Cherng Hong, Huang‐Hsiung Hsu
Concurrent 2018 Hot Extremes Across Northern Hemisphere Due to Human‐Induced Climate Change Earth's Future M. M. Vogel, J. Zscheischler, R. Wartenburger, D. Dee, S. I. Seneviratne
Contribution of anthropogenic warming to California drought during 2012–2014 Geophysical Research Letters Williams, A. Park, Seager, Richard, Abatzoglou, John T., Cook, Benjamin I., Smerdon, Jason E., Cook, Edward R.
Contribution of relative sea-level rise to historical hurricane flooding in New York City Journal of Quaternary Science Kemp, Andrew C., Horton, Benjamin P.
Contributions of Anthropogenic and Natural Forcing to Recent Tropopause Height Changes Science B. D. Santer, M. F. Wehner, T. M. L. Wigley, R. Sausen, G. A. Meehl, K. E. Taylor, C. Ammann, J. Arblaster, W. M. Washington, J. S. Boyle, W. Brüggemann
Deducing Multidecadal Anthropogenic Global Warming Trends Using Multiple Regression Analysis AMS Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Jiansong Zhou and Ka-Kit Tung
Detectable Changes in the Frequency of Temperature Extremes AMS Journal of Climate Simone Morak, Gabriele C. Hegerl, and Nikolaos Christidis
Detectable regional changes in the number of warm nights Geophysical Research Letters Morak, S., Hegerl, G. C., Kenyon, J.
Detected climatic change in global distribution of tropical cyclones Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Hiroyuki Murakami, Thomas L. Delworth, William F. Cooke, Ming Zhao, Baoqiang Xiang, Pang-Chi Hsu
Detecting an external influence on recent changes in oceanic oxygen using an optimal fingerprinting method Biogeosciences Andrews, O. D., Bindoff, N. L., Halloran, P. R., Ilyina, T., Quéré, C. Le